Unity in a deal with KD, Premiere sees its stock falls

After losing out on the country’s TV rights to broadcast football, media company Premiere AG reached an agreement to broadcast the lucrative UEFA Champions League games on free TV, but still saw its stock drop further. As part of the next two years (starting next season) deal, Premiere was obligated to broadcast 13 games on free TV. To honour the deal, Premiere AG announced 13 games will be broadcast on EM.TV AG's free sports channel DSF to broadcast games of the UEFA football Champions League.

However, Unity Media, which was awarded TV rights by the German Football League (DFL) last December, announced plans to partner with the country's dominant cable company Kabel Deutschland GmbH (KD) to reach more viewers, Bernard de Roos, head of Unity Media's Arena unit, was quoted by German daily Handelsblatt as saying. The news of Unity’s impending deal with KD saw Premiere’s stock fall by 4.7 percent. Earlier, after Premiere lost out on the DFL’s TV rights, its stocks tumbled by 42 percent on a single day.

KD provides radio and TV services to about 10 million households in 13 of Germany's 16 federal states, while Unity Media serves about 5.2 million households in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, and in the state of Hesse. Unity Media is also nearing an agreement with satellite operator SES Global SA to offer Bundesliga matches via satellite through SES's Astra unit, de Roos told Handelsblatt.

Analysts including CA Cheuvreux's Michael Schacht have said that Premiere may lose up to one third of its 3.4 million subscribers over the next two or three years. Premiere's Chief Executive Officer Georg Kofler reiterated on Jan. 30 that he planned to speak with Unity Media officials about the possibility of sharing the TV rights.